LORD Laming wrote to a number of media organisations - including ourselves - in April to inform readers how he perceived the inquiry would run.

Here we reprint his letter in full

From Lord Laming of Tewin

I thought it would be helpful for me to convey to the people of Hyde how the independent inquiry into the issues arising from the case of Harold Shipman should proceed.

The Secretary of State for Health, The Rt Hon Alan Milburn MP, supported by the Home Secretary, announced in the House of Commons that he was setting up an inquiry and asked me to be the chairman. I am joined by Professor Hazel Genn and Dr Aneez Esmail in this task.

Professor Genn is Professor of Socio-Legal Studies in the Law Faculty of University College, London. Dr Esmail, a qualified medical practitioner and a practising GP, is Head of the School of Primary Care at the University of Manchester. I am a former Chief Inspector of the Social Services Inspectorate.

The inquiry's terms of reference are to inquire into the issues raised by the deaths of patients of Harold Shipman whilst he was a GP at The Surgery, 21 Market Street, Hyde, and to investigate the conduct and performance of the various authorities and individuals involved in monitoring and regulating that medical practice.

Our main task is to ensure that important lessons are learnt from this tragic episode and to recommend to the government ways of strengthening safeguards which will protect patients in the future.

We understand completely the anxieties of relatives and friends of those who died. However, I must emphasise that it is not within our terms of reference to conduct a judicial inquiry or a criminal investigation, nor to establish the causes of deaths. These are matters for the police and the coroner.

We will then make recommendations to the Secretary of State for Health and the Home Secretary for the safeguarding of patients.

Already, we have written to as many relatives and friends as we can identify of those who died. We will continue to keep them and other concerned people informed.

We are in the process of setting up the inquiry offices in Manchester and we will be explaining soon how anyone who wishes to make a statement to the inquiry on a range of topics can do so. The inquiry will be conducted in private but its report and recommendations will be made public.

Finally, I would stress that my colleagues and I intend to investigate these matters thoroughly and diligently and make practical recommendations to the government so that, as far as humanly possible, nothing like these tragic and awful events happens again.

Yours truly,

Lord Laming of Tewin.

We published this letter on April 6, 2001. On the same day, the national press were called to the offices of Alexander Harris solicitors to hear family representatives - Michael Woodruff, Jane Ashton-Hibbert and Peter Wagstaff - give their views.

"We as a family have gone through so much ... an exhumation and 12 months later a trial which went through the Christmas and millennium period.

"They don't seem to realise we have been under a hell of a strain."

Solicitor Ann Alexander explained the Altrincham-based firm had written three times to the health secretary, receiving one 'short and unsatisfactory' reply in March, although they had met with Lord Laming on April 3.

"The lack of response so far has been discourteous and I would, as a member of the public, feel more confident if the evidence was given in the full gaze of the public eye," Ms Alexander said.

It was June that year when we reported next on this matter, this time from the High Court in London.